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Elizabeth Brundige, an expert on gender-based violence issues and executive director of the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell University Law School, is available to discuss persistent sexual violence against women in India and the re-victimization of survivors.

Brundige says:“Just days after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in a New Delhi bus, another gang rape victim – an adolescent girl from the northern Indian State of Punjab – committed suicide after the police proved unwilling to register her case. Her death was a tragic reminder of the enormous challenges that sexual violence survivors face throughout India.

“In far too many cases, survivors who seek redress are victimized all over again. They may confront delays and inaction, humiliating treatment by police and hospital staff, inadequate laws that contain immunities for public officials and fail to address all sexual violence, and court backlogs that cause cases to drag on for years. With national and global attention focused on these recent brutal assaults, the Indian government has the opportunity, and the urgent need, to take meaningful action to prevent sexual violence and ensure that survivors are afforded justice.”